Garlic Scapes
Scapes
One of the pleasures of home growing hard-necked garlic is that it is a plant that gives to us twice.
Every year about now, a month or two before I can harvest the garlic I planted last fall, Norma and I start running out of garlic. Just in time, our new crop, while not ready to be pulled from the ground yet, is sending up the curly tops and little buds known as garlic scapes. One needs to cut these off, so that the plant spends more time growing the garlic bulb we want, so it’s a great time now to harvest the scapes and process them.
I trim the scape by cutting below the bulb so that end gets composted, and then I use the stem down to as far as is tender and curly. That bunch, as in the image, gets washed and then later I make it into a wonderful garlic pesto, while some of it can also just be chopped up and used in recipes as you would fresh garlic.
My pesto is simple (Parmesan cheese, olive oil and scapes) and gluten free so my daughter, who has celiac disease, can use it as well. We put it on all kinds of foods and use in toppings of everything from chicken to later on an amazing dip made with artichoke hearts mixed into the garlic pesto as a dip.
I’ve even made it into my famous garlic ribs, but be aware that the amount of garlic goodness may cause issue – I once put a friend’s baby off breast milk with that recipe! Whatever you choose, garlic is a wonderful thing to use for creative cooking.
Bon appetit!
